A Little Hellfire
by Fooldartz
Summary: The Third Hokage discovers the location of Orochimaru's hideout and sends Anko to lead a team and attack it. Orochimaru escapes, but they discover someone that was left behind-a six year old girl named Tayuya. Anko adopts Tayuya and raises her to be a shinobi of Konoha. Upon turning twelve, she graduates from the academy and is placed on Team 7. On hiatus until 2015.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto

Chapter One

Sarutobi Hiruzen, third Hokage of Konoha, looked up from his paperwork as Mitarashi Anko walked into his office. Well, walked wasn't the right word, really. It was more like she burst into his office. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Well, what did you find?" He asked her. Anko shrugged.

"The base was abandoned; Orochimaru must have known we were coming." She told him. "On the bright side though…" She reached behind her and pushed a small red-haired girl in front of her. "I found this little hellfire hiding in one of the rooms." The girl looked around the room, looking scared, but also trying very hard not to show that fear.

"And what's your name?" Sarutobi asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the girl.

"Fuck off." The girl muttered, not looking at him. Sarutobi's eyes widened slightly, and Anko smacked her on the back of the head. "What was that for?" The girl demanded, turning around to glare at Anko.

"I already told you, I'm going to smack you anytime you're rude, including swearing." Anko said, a smile on her face. "Now tell the Hokage your name before I smack you again." The girl glared up at Anko for a moment, then turned back to Hiruzen, cowed.

"Tayuya." She muttered, glaring at the ground.

"What about your family name?" Sarutobi asked gently.

"I don't have one." Tayuya growled. "I never had a family." Sarutobi stared at her for a moment, thinking. He doubted that Orochimaru had left her behind on purpose, to act as a spy for him. In all likelihood, he simply had noticed that she was gone, and hadn't cared enough to go back for her when he noticed, if he ever did. After all, the child looked to be six or so; he couldn't have put much work into her. At the same time though, he couldn't take unnecessary risks. He'd have to put her in the care of a powerful shinobi, somebody who'd be able to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn't spying on them. Plus, if Orochimaru had taken her in at such a young age, then she'd surely make a powerful shinobi one day. He nodded and leaned back in his chair, lighting his pipe.

"Anko, how much room do you have in your house?" He asked. Anko frowned at this question, cocking her head to the side.

"I don't know, lots I suppose. I live by myself after all." She told him after a second.

"Would you say you have enough for one more person then?" He asked. Anko frowned, then grinned, looking down at Tayuya.

"Oh, definitely. Especially if that other person is young and small." Tayuya's eyes widened as she realized what they were talking about, and she looked quickly from Anko to Sarutobi , horrified.

"No! Hell no!" She yelled, but Anko just picked her up, smacking the redhead lightly on the head as she did so.

"That's right Hellfire, we're roommates now!" She said, slinging Tayuya over her shoulder and running out of the room. Sarutobi sighed and stuck the pipe in his mouth, taking a puff. He wasn't sure who he pitied more-Tayuya for having to live with Anko, or the rest of Konoha for what would surely come from Anko raising a child.

_One hour later_

Anko sighed and walked into the kitchen for some sake. The guest bedroom that she'd kept more out of laziness than anything else had been converted into a Tayuya's bedroom, though it had taken a while to get the little girl to go to sleep. She'd worried that she'd have to use a genjutsu on the girl, but the stress and resulting exhaustion had taken their toll on the girl and she'd fallen asleep. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the man in her kitchen until she entered it. "Who the hell are you?" Anko demanded, taking up a fighting stance. The man simply bowed.

"My name is Maveraki Koshioro. " He told her. "Rest assured, I mean you no harm. I merely wished to thank you."

"Thank me for what?" Anko asked warily, not relaxing.

"For saving Tayuya and taking her into your home." He said simply, standing up.

"You know her?" Anko said, surprised.

"We've never spoken." Koshioro told her. "But she is a member of my clan, and I have been keeping an eye on her whenever possible."

"She has a clan? Then what the fuck was she doing with Orochimaru?" Anko demanded angrily.

"The Maveraki clan is wild and scattered." Koshioro said. "We have no allegiance to any nation and as such, our lives our not very stable. By the time we discovered that her parents were dead, she'd already been taken in by Orochimaru. We decided to leave her with him, that her life would be better with him than with us."

"How the hell would it be better?" Anko demanded. "I used to serve him, he's a heartless bastard!"

"Yes, but he takes care of his experiments. Under his command, she'd be guaranteed food, shelter, and training. We could only guarantee the last one, so it was decided to let her live with him for now. I was to watch her and make sure that she stayed safe. If anything happened to her, I would sneak in and retrieve her."

"Let me guess-you're going to leave her here with me." Anko said dryly.

"Of course." Koshioro said, sounding surprised that she had to ask. "I will readily admit that the plan to leave her with Orochimaru was flawed. Konoha is far better than either Orochimaru or her clan. However, with your permission, I would like to teach her the skills of her clan when she turns eight."

"Does she have a kekkei genkai?" Anko asked curiously.

"I'm afraid not. However, our clan specializes in weapon based Taijutsu, with the best of us being able to easily defeat the swordsman of the Village Hidden in the Mist. I'd teach her the katana, with your permission, as well as a few special Jutsu we've perfected, and induct her into our clan's summoning contract."

"Summoning contract? With who, exactly?" Anko asked.

"You ask a lot of questions." Koshioro remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm trying to figure out if I should trust you or not." Anko told him. "Now answer the question."

"We have a contract with the cats." He told her. "If you allow met to train her, they will also teach her skills." Anko thought it over.

"Fine, on one condition. I get to watch her training." She told him finally.

"Not when I'm teaching her our clan's secret techniques." Koshioro said. Anko shrugged.

"Of course not. But I'm not going to just leave her alone with you for days on end. Besides, I'm curious to see a cat summon. I've never heard of a clan that has a contract with the cats before." She said. Koshioro bowed.

"Thank you. I will see you again in three years." He told her, shunshinning out of the house. Anko stared at where he'd just been, then sighed and walked over to the cabinet, pulling out a bottle of sake. She definitely needed it now.

Author's Notes

Anko, you're planning on hitting Tayuya on the head every time you hear her swear? Oh boy, I hope you're ready to hit her a lot. On the bright side, that means that Tayuya will be completely immune to blunt force trauma to the head by the time she turns twelve.

Also, I'm not planning on showing you guys the training that Koshioro will give Tayuya. I am a Naruto fan, but I will admit that I'm a slightly bigger fan of One Piece, and I'm going to take a leaf from that book-when training happens, allude to it, show the results, but don't show the training itself. This is only going to apply here though. I will show other training sessions, just not this one.

Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto

Chapter Two

Tayuya walked out of the academy, grinning. She looked around, but was unsurprised to see that Anko wasn't there. After all, her mom was a jonin, and she had more important things to do then show up at an academy graduation. Still, some part of her had hoped…She shook her head, driving that thought out of her head, and walked over to the swing. "Hey, let's go get some ramen." She told Naruto, leaning against the tree. Tayuya was one of the few friends his age that Naruto had. In fact, he only had one other friend, and that was because of Tayuya as well. When Anko had finally decided that Tayuya was ready to be unleashed upon the villagers of Konoha, she'd sent Tayuya to a playground, where the red head had found Naruto. She'd quickly discovered that the other children weren't supposed to play with him. So, being Tayuya, she'd set out to make him her friend. Naruto had been suspicious at first, but over time he'd realized that she really was his friend. The blond boy looked up at her morosely, then turned back to stare at the crowd of graduates and their families.

"Go ahead." He said dully. Tayuya scowled, and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Baka! Do you know what the word let's means dumbass? It means, let us. As in two or more people. Now get off your ass, and let's go get some ramen!" Naruto glared at her.

"Leave me alone." He growled.

"So you didn't graduate." Tayuya told him. "Look at like this. When you graduate next year, you'll be the best in the class because you'll have so much experience."

"This isn't the first time I failed." Naruto reminded her. Tayuya shrugged.

"Well, I'll get plenty of experience as a shinobi myself over the next year, so I can help you master everything you need to learn." She told him. "Now stop feeling sorry for yourself. I know you want to impress Sakura, but your Sasuke impression still needs work."

"W…What?" Naruto stuttered, staring at her.

"You need less sadness and more anger." Tayuya told him, screwing up her face into a close approximation of the Uchiha boy. Naruto finally cracked a smile. "See? You got the emo part right, you just went in the wrong direction. Now let's go get some ramen." Naruto sighed and stood up.

"Have I ever told you you're really pushy Tayuya-chan?" He asked. Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"Yes you have. Several times. Now wait here." She turned from her friend and went to go find her other friend. Hinata was standing in a corner, looking down nervously at the ground and twiddling her fingers. "The asshole didn't show up?" Tayuya asked, walking up to her.

"I'm sure he's very busy." Hinata said nervously.

"I'm sure." Tayuya said dryly. "C'mon, Naruto and I are going to get some ramen." She continued, grabbing Hinata's hand and pulling her through the crowd. Hinata let out a small squeak and began blushing furiously, staring at Tayuya's hand. Tayuya frowned, then shrugged it off. She was probably just worried about leaving before she was 100% certain her father wasn't showing up.

_Three hours later_

"Oi! Tayuya!" Anko called out. Tayuya looked away from the practice dummy she'd been attacking with her sword. If you could call it a sword. It was the best that Tayuya could afford using the money she'd earned, but that wasn't saying much. In short, it was a piece of shit.

"What do you want bitch?" Tayuya asked, walking over. Anko rolled her eyes and smacked Tayuya on the back of the head. There wasn't any malice behind Tayuya's words, it was just the way she talked. All the same, it had become a habit/ritual to smack her whenever she swore. It had started out as an attempt to get Tayuya to stop, and now she just did it despite knowing that it wouldn't change her adoptive daughter's behavior.

"I got you a graduation gift." Anko said, reaching behind her to grab something out of reach. Tayuya's eyes widened.

"What is it? A new flute?" She asked, letting some excitement slip into her voice. Anko smiled.

"Nope. I did you one better." She said, revealing a katana. Tayuya's eyes bugged out in awe as she reverently took the sword from Anko, slowly drawing the sword. Unlike her current one, this was made of fine steel, perfectly balanced. Anko grinned and patted her on the head, then walked away.

"Hey…" Tayuya said slowly, looking up from the sword. Anko turned around, wiping the grin off her face.

"Yeah?" She asked. Tayuya looked down at the ground, blushing slightly.

"Thanks…Mom." Anko grinned again, even wider than before.

"No problem Hellfire. Just don't break it on your first mission, okay?" She said. Tayuya nodded solemnly and walked back into the backyard to begin training with her new sword.

_Twenty hours later_

Tayuya sat down in her chair and put her feet up on the table in front of her. "Hey, move your legs Tayuya-chan!" Naruto told her, glaring.

"What the hell?" Tayuya exclaimed, staring up at him in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Naruto grinned.

"Secret." He told her, stepping over her legs. Tayuya rolled her eyes and let him. "Where's your forehead protector?" Naruto asked, looking at her and frowning.

"Right here." Tayuya told him, tapping the plate she'd wrapped around her left bicep, just below her shoulder.

"Why didn't you put it on your forehead?" Naruto asked, cocking his head to the side.

"That would mess up my hat." Tayuya told him. Naruto frowned and opened his mouth, but Iruka walked into the room before he could. The teacher pulled out a clipboard and smiled at the group of graduates.

"Good morning. Today I'm going be giving you your assignments. Specifically, I'm going to be giving you the names of the jonin assigned to teach you and lead your teams." Tayuya spaced out for the most part. She barely listened to Iruka, just paying enough attention to make sure that her name wasn't being said. She did smile though when Hinata was put on a team with Kiba and Shino. That was good, her shy friend needed the boost in confidence, and being on a team with two of the best people in their class would definitely help with that. "Team 7-Mitarashi Tayuya, Uzumaki Naruto," Tayuya and Naruto grinned at each other and fist bumped. "And Uchiha Sasuke." Tayuya scowled, and Naruto stood up angrily. Before he could say anything though, Tayuya yanked him back down.

"Shut up dumbass." She hissed. "It's a miracle you graduated, don't mess it up by whining about something you can't change." Naruto glared at her, but said nothing.

"That's all for today students. Tomorrow you will meet your new teachers." Iruka said. "Class dismissed."

"Man, I can't believe that we got stuck with a moody loser like him." Naruto grumbled as he and Tayuya walked out of the classroom.

"He was the best in the class." Tayuya pointed out. "It's probably a good sign that we got put on the same team."

"You're happy about this?" Naruto said incredulously. "Don't tell me you have a crush on him too!" Tayuya gave him a death glare, pissed off at the mere suggestion that she might like Sasuke, and Naruto waved his hands frantically and backed away. "I was just kidding, I was just kidding!" He yelled as Tayuya began punching him.

"I'm not happy about this shithead!" She snapped when she'd gotten all the anger out. "It's just that, unlike you, I get the concept of accepting things. Besides, you're just upset that Sakura isn't on your team." Naruto looked away from her, not saying anything, and Tayuya grinned, taking it as proof that she was right. "Sheesh Naruto, you need to get over her. I mean, c'mon, she's obsessed with Sasuke, just like pretty much every other girl in our year. Hell, for all I know, Hinata's obsessed with him too. If that's the case, then every girl in the class is obsessed with him."

"No, I refuse to admit defeat to that lazy jerk!" Naruto said, folding his arms stubbornly. Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You're going to have to change your approach if you want her to fall in love with you though." Naruto paused, and then looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"What do you think I should do?" He asked.

"I told you, move on and find another girl." Tayuya told him.

"No, I meant, what would you suggest I do to get her to fall in love with me." Naruto said, sounding slightly frustrated. Tayuya shrugged.

"Hell if I know." She told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto demanded. "How do you not know how to get girls to fall in love with you, you like girls!"

"Yeah, but I don't know how to get girls like Sakura to fall in love with me. I'm not interested in having a girlfriend like her, and besides, I'd have to work even more than you would, because she's not into girls." She reminded him as they came to a stop at a corner. This was where they parted ways to get home.

"See you tomorrow Tayuya-chan." Naruto said with a grin, walking off in one direction.

"See you tomorrow dumbass." Tayuya said, returning the smile as she walked in the other direction.

_Twenty-four hours later_

Kakashi watched his three new genin as they waited for him in the empty room. Well, Sasuke was waiting for him. Naruto was placing something on the door so that it would fall on Kakashi when he entered the room, and Tayuya was up and standing next to him, talking. Kakashi was far away to tell if she was reprimanding the blonde, or if she was trying to help him. Seeing as this girl had been raised and, to a certain extent, trained by Anko, he decided to enter through the window instead, just in case she was helping Naruto lay a trap for him. He scanned his students, watching for a moment when none of them were looking at the mirror. He was still baffled by Naruto's jumpsuit. Even though shinobi weren't as stealth oriented now as they had been in earlier periods of history, orange still seemed ridiculous to him. At least his other students were more appropriately attired. Sasuke was wearing a blue shirt with a big collar and white pants, while Tayuya was wearing jeans, a dark green shirt, and a strange hat not unlike a beanie. Kakashi sighed and put his book away. Time to go greet the genin.

"Whatcha doing?" Kakashi asked pleasantly, appearing in the window. His three new students all jumped and turned to stare at him in surprise. "I hope you weren't planning on doing something as stupid as pranking the man who holds your careers as shinobi in his hands." Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he realized just what he'd been trying to do, and Tayuya elbowed him in the stomach. "Good. Now, normally I'd suggest that we'd leave the room to talk, but I don't think anybody wants to go through that door right now. So, we'll just stay here."

"Stay here and do what?" Sasuke asked rudely. Kakashi shrugged.

"Oh, mainly introduce ourselves." He said. "I figure you can all tell me your names, your likes and dislikes, and your goals. Then, tomorrow, you'll meet me at the training field for a little test." Sasuke snorted, clearly considering this beneath him, while Tayuya and Naruto took the news fine.

"I'll go first!" Naruto said eagerly. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, I hate the time wasted waiting for the ramen to be ready, and my goal is to become Hokage and make everyone in the village acknowledge me!" Sasuke snorted quietly at this, but Naruto didn't seem to hear him.

"I guess I'll go next." Tayuya said. "I'm Mitarashi Tayuya, I like swords, flutes, and girls, I hate whiny, arrogant idiots, and I don't have any particular goals beyond being a shinobi the history books will remember."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I dislike, I don't like anything…"

"Yeah you do." Tayuya said, leaning back. "You like hair gel and being all depressed and angsty." Sasuke glared at her, and Kakashi sighed. '_This is not going well._' He thought to himself as Sasuke continued.

"I don't have any hobbies, and I don't have any goals. I do have an ambition however. I want to rebuild my clan and I want to kill a certain person." Tayuya rolled her eyes, and Naruto paled. '_I hope he's not talking about me._' He thought with a gulp.

"Well, I suppose I could tell you a little about myself before we get started." Kakashi said, running a hand through his hair. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. Goals for the future? Hmm…And I have many hobbies." Naruto stared at him in disbelief, while Tayuya and Sasuke barely reacted at all. Neither of them had expected to get much more information than that out of the Jonin. "Now then, onto the test tomorrow. Now some of you may be wondering why I'm having you take another test so soon after graduating. Well, simply put, it's a test to see if you, well…" He started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Naruto demanded, glaring at their new teacher.

"Oh, it's just that, when I tell you this, you're going to freak out. You see, out of the 27 students who graduated from the academy this year, only nine of them will actually go on to become genin. The academy was merely to see who had the potential to become genin. This test will actually determine if you can make it or not." Naruto's jaw dropped in horror, and Tayuya's eyes widened, while Sasuke barely reacted at all. Kakashi laughed. "See, I told you you were going to freak out." He handed them each a piece of paper. "These are the instructions for tomorrow's test. I recommend you study them now, as they'll also tell you where we're meeting. Bring all your ninja gear, and don't eat anything for breakfast, you'll just throw it up." With that, he turned around and left. Sasuke left a second later, followed by Tayuya, then Naruto.

_Twenty-four hours later_

"Good, you're all here." Kakashi said, looking at them. "Now, I imagine that you're all wondering what the test is. Well, I'll tell you." He held up two bells. "The test is actually fairly simple. Your job is to get the bells away from me. If you get the bells from me, then you'll graduate."

"But there are only two bells." Tayuya pointed out. Kakashi nodded.

"That's the trick. No matter what happens, one of you isn't going to become a genin. As a result, I'm going to allow you to use any weapons or techniques that you know. You'll have to come at me with killing intent if you want to get the bells. Now, I'll give you ten seconds to get away and strategize." All three of his students disappeared, and Kakashi looked around, nodding in satisfaction when he realized that he couldn't see them.

"Come fight me!" Naruto yelled. Kakashi sweatdropped and turned around to see Naruto standing out in the open behind him.

"Uh, you're kind of doing it wrong." He pointed out. Naruto just laughed and ran at him. Kakashi reached for his weapons pouch. "Taijutsu." He said calmly. "Is one of the three styles of techniques used by shinobi. I'm going to teach it to you." Naruto skidded to a halt, suddenly worried. Kakashi was going to use a weapon on him? Kakashi reached into the pouch and whipped out…an orange book?

"What the hell is that?" Naruto demanded, pointing at the book.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm just curious about what comes next. I won't need to concentrate for you three." Naruto growled in anger and threw himself at Kakashi.

"I'll make you acknowledge me!" He yelled, punching at Kakashi's head. To his shock, Kakashi blocked it with one hand, not looking away from his book. This pattern went on for a few seconds, when suddenly Tayuya came flying out of the trees, sword drawn, and she slashed down at Kakashi's head. The jonin jumped backwards just in time, avoiding the slice.

"Baka!" Tayuya yelled at Naruto, keeping her eyes on Kakashi. "You should have gone into the forest, we could've come up with a plan of attack from there!"

"But this is my plan!" Naruto protested, glaring at Tayuya. "He never expected that we'd attack him head on from the start."

"Doing the unexpected doesn't make the plan good." Tayuya retorted. Kakashi stared at them warily. They still weren't a serious threat, but he hadn't expected Tayuya to come and work with Naruto. He frowned behind the mask and pocketed the book. He had a feeling he'd need both hands for this one. Tayuya threw herself at him, swinging her sword. Kakashi jumped back, then threw himself to the ground as Naruto jumped at him from behind. The two genin didn't give him a moment's rest, both trying to attack him while he lay on the ground. Kakashi quickly drew a kunai, blocking Tayuya's sword strike, and lashed out with his feet, knocking them both away. Naruto scowled and formed a hand sign.

"I've got this. Meet my ultimate secret jutsu-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Tayuya and Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise as eight new Narutos appeared.

"What the hell is that?" Tayuya demanded.

"I'll tell you later. Now let's go!" Naruto yelled, charging. "There's not just two of us anymore!" He yelled. "Try and stop us now!" Tayuya stayed back to watch for an opening, not wanting to accidentally slice open a clone, and Kakashi just scoffed.

"Eight isn't going to be any harder than one." He said, getting ready to fight. Before he could move though, one of the clones jumped out of the river and latched onto his back, pinning him in place.

"Ha! What are you going to do now?" Naruto demanded, jumping in the air to punch Kakashi. Just as his fist was about to come into contact with Kakashi's face however, he was replaced by a clone. Naruto wasn't able to stop in time, and he ended up beating up the clone. Kakashi watched from the forest as the Naruto clones began to argue amongst themselves, then frowned. A piece of bark, about a foot and a half long, was attached to the Naruto clone he'd replaced himself with. What was going on? Suddenly, he heard the jingle of the two bells, and looked up to see a small black kitten running towards Tayuya, the bells in its mouth. Kakashi frowned in confusion and ran after it. Tayuya hadn't brought a cat with her, and his inspection of her and Anko's house had shown him that she didn't even own a cat. Had she summoned it? He had sensed a rather large amount of chakra going off while he was fighting off Naruto. He'd barely entered the clearing however, when ten or so shuriken were thrown at him. He quickly replaced himself with a log, taking not of where the shuriken had come from, and re appeared in front of the kitten. He picked it up and tried to pull the bells from its mouth, but it resisted.

"I can summon a dog to take it from you if you'd prefer." Kakashi told the kitten, lazily tossing a kunai in the direction of Sasuke's hiding spot. He needed to flush the Uchiha out for this test to be completed. Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke, and the kitten was replaced with Sasuke, who kicked him in the head.

"I don't think a dog's going to do much." Sasuke said, jumping back.

"You replaced yourself with the kitten?" Kakashi said. "How'd you come up with that, that kind of plan takes coordination. Summoned animals don't usually like to have jutsus performed on them without explicit permission."

"Tayuya sent another cat to me to work out a plan while she was fighting you with Naruto." Sasuke said, pointing up. Kakashi looked up to see an orange cat perched on the tree branch above him. While he was distracted, Sasuke attacked him, latching onto his back and pinning him in place. Naruto appeared a second later, along with several clones, and they formed a ring, surrounding him.

"Not bad for an emo and a baka." Tayuya said, walking out of the forest with the black kitten on her shoulder. Sasuke jumped off of Kakashi, and she tossed him and Naruto a bell each.

"Not bad at all." Kakashi admitted. "I'll admit that you're the first group of genin to ever get the bells away from me. But you still have the problem of two bells and three people."

"What are you talking about?" Tayuya asked, holding out her own bell.

"Let me guess, Sasuke also transformed a rock or a leaf into a bell while he was hiding." Kakashi said with a sigh.

"I might have." Sasuke said. "Put how exactly do you plan on proving that?" Kakashi sighed again, then smiled. The three genin stared at him in shock. They couldn't see his mouth, but his one visible eye was clearly showing happiness.

"Congratulations, you three are the first team to ever pass my test!" He said happily. There eye's widened ever more when he appeared behind them, the three bells in hand. "In fact, all three of you would have passed even if you hadn't cheated with the bells."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tayuya demanded.

"The point of the test wasn't to see if you could actually succeed in getting the bells away from me." Kakashi explained. "The point was to see if you were capable of working together as a team despite the fact that it looked like only two of you would benefit from it. As shinobi, you'll be forced to face threats and challenges that no single one of you could handle on your own. In those situations, you'll have to put aside your own differences and work together as a team. And, miracle of miracles, you did. So, I'm going to let you three go home, eat, rest, and then we'll meet again tomorrow to start your real training and missions." Tayuya and Naruto grinned and ran off, and Sasuke followed close behind, a slight smile on his face as well.

_At the same time_

"Zabuza-sama, there's a man here to see you." Haku reported, walking into Zabuza's hut. The muscular man looked up from his sword.

"Who is it?" He demanded gruffly. Haku paused, his eyes uncertain.

"He said that he's your cousin." He finally said. Zabuza groaned. There was only one member of the clan who ever bothered to try and hunt him down, and the man was so annoying.

"Fine. Koshioro, get your ass in here." The older, smaller man walked into the hut, a pleasant smile on his face.

"Now, now, Zabuza-kun, is that anyway to treat an older cousin that you haven't seen in years?" He asked, sitting down in front of Zabuza. Haku's eyes widened, and he backed away quickly to avoid getting caught in what was sure to be an explosion of rage on Zabuza's part. To his surprise however, Zabuza didn't react at all to being addressed as kun.

"It is when that cousin's an annoying prick. Now what do you want?" Koshioro got serious.

"You've been approached by a rich man named Getzou to take on a job, correct?" He asked, pulling a folder out of his robes.

"That's right. What about it?" Zabuza growled. Koshioro handed over the folder.

"This is a list of all the rogue shinobi that Getzou has hired over the years." He said. Zabuza opened it, quickly scanning the contents.

"They're all dead." He growled.

"That's right. Getzou hires rogue shinobi to do his dirty work, then has his own personal army of mercenaries kill them so he doesn't have to pay and he doesn't have loose ends."

"What do you want in exchange for this information?" Zabuza asked.

"What makes you think I need an ulterior motive to get my young cousin to not take a job that could end up killing him?" Koshioro asked, a pleasant smile on his face. Zabuza said nothing, giving him a dry look instead. Koshioro sighed. "Someone is hunting down and killing the adults of the Maveraki Clan." He admitted. "We don't know why, and the result is that we have a lot of orphans on our hands. They're not even focusing on those of us that are active shinobi, they're killing those of us who have become merchants and farmers as well."

"And you want me to track this killer down?" Zabuza asked. He had to admit, while he wasn't particularly close to most of his clan, the idea of someone killing them off pissed him off. Koshioro shook his head.

"No. Let's face it Zabuza-kun, you're not particularly great at tracking. No, we've decided to take an alternative path. The clan is very extensive, and with all this unrest in the land anyway, there are many people outside of the clan who wish to relocate somewhere safer, but don't want to join any of the larger villages. So, we've decided to form our own." He tossed Zabuza two forehead protectors, one for him and one for Haku. "The village hidden in the thorns." He said in way of answering Zabuza's questioning look. "We've received funds and aid from our old friend Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the construction and relocation has already begun. I'm here to ask you to become a jonin of the Hidden Thorn village and to take on the role of a mentor. There are two other genin level orphans of our clan who are in need of a teacher. As a legitimate jonin of a legitimate village, you'd be able to enter them and Haku in the upcoming chunin exams." Zabuza stared at the forehead protector. It was standard issue, a blue band with a metal plate in the middle. In the center was the symbol of the new village-a large vine, with hooked thorns coming out of it every few millimeters. He sighed again, then took off his old forehead protector and replaced it with the new one. Haku did the same, and Koshioro beamed.

Author's Notes

Alright, on the subject of the test-no I'm not trying to say that Tayuya likes people more in this story and that she's going to become great friends with Sasuke. What I'm saying is what Shikamaru said-Tayuya is smart, almost as smart as he is. So, she'd have the intelligence to realize that they had no chance against a jonin on their own. Sakura realized this too, but Tayuya would actually be willing to get all three of them involved in the plan, not just the boy she liked.

Now, I am going to be doing the whole Zabuza arc, just without Zabuza. After that however, comes the chunin exams. There will be a preliminary match for this one, with different matches, not just Tayuya vs. Ino. So, I'm going to let you guys pick. The only match I'm leaving alone is Hinata vs. Neji, and Sasuke vs.….the unimportant guy that nobody remembers the name of. So, feel free to state in the review section what matchups you want to see! Just so you know however, I will be replacing the Sound genin (as in, they don't make it out of the forest of death) with the three genin Zabuza will be training. I will introduce them in the next chapter, but I'll give a brief description of the two that aren't Haku now. The girl's name is Cana, and her specialty is taijutsu, like Rock Lee. Unlike Lee however, her focus is on punches. Simply put, her fighting style, as well as her personality, is like that of an 1980's action star-punch it, and keep on punching until it goes down. There's more strategy behind it than that, but that's her in a nut shell. The other is a boy named Tenzou, and his focus is archery. It's much easier to explain his personality-pretend that he's being played by a young Jack Black.

Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto

Preface

I'm just going to get this out of the way right now, up front, because a lot of people have been asking about this. Which is a little odd, since none of them have acknowledged that I asked for a different kind of feedback (specifically, feedback relating to the chunin exams), but whatever. Yes, Tayuya is a lesbian. I plan on pairing her up with Hinata later on in the story-much later. I'm sorry if you were under the impression that this was going to pair Naruto and Tayuya. I listed them as the two characters in the summary because they are the two main characters. Hinata will gradually become more important as the story goes on, but she'll never be as important as the Naruto and Tayuya. I'm sorry if you feel that I misled you, and I fully understand if you decide to stop reading this story.

Chapter Three

Tayuya glared at the cat. "Get your fat ass over here now." She growled, holding her arms out. The fat cat glared back at her for a moment, as if considering whether or not it should disobey her. It wisely chose to obey her, jumping forward into her arms. "Smart." Tayuya said, walking back to the rest of her team. "And that is how you catch a cat." She told Naruto. Naruto had suggested that they hunt down the cat in a rather overly complicated manner, as if they were chasing down a human criminal. Sasuke, surprisingly, had been the one to shoot that plan down, pointing out that Tayuya's contract with the cats had given her an affinity for them and that she'd probably be able to catch it the cat much easier than they could. Tayuya, not one to back down from a challenge, had agreed.

Kakashi sat up in a tree, watching his team. They were developing surprisingly fast despite the fact that none of them had gone on any missions of particular difficulty. He could tell that they were all starting to get annoyed with the D rank missions, though Sasuke and Tayuya would never say so, and Tayuya would always force Naruto to keep his mouth shut when he started up. He'd decided that it was time to let them try a C rank mission next. It had taken some time to convince the Hokage, but Kakashi had pointed out that he'd be there himself in case anything went wrong, and the Hokage had relented, agreeing to let Kakashi's team take on a simple escort mission. He was confident that his team was capable of handling any bandit attack.

"Alright guys, let's go back to the village." Kakashi said, jumping down from the tree branch. "We need to take that cat back to its owner, get paid, and accept another mission."

"What, we don't get any fucking downtime?" Tayuya demanded, tightening her grip on the cat when it tried to wriggle free. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

"Tayuya, we just accepted this mission today." He pointed out.

"So?" The redhead demanded. Kakashi sighed.

"Look, I already have a mission lined up, alright? We need to go and accept it. It's a C rank mission." He added when they still looked reluctant. Naruto immediately grinned, and Tayuya and Sasuke's eyes lit up.

"Whooo! Finally!" Naruto yelled triumphantly, doing a little dance.

"Sasuke, please hit the dumbass. My arms are full of fat cat right now." Tayuya growled, walking away from the clearing. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but smacked Naruto on the head anyway, largely because he wanted to do that as much as Tayuya wanted him to. Kakashi rolled his eye as they walked away from the forest and back to Konoha.

_Ten minutes later_

"Those three are supposed to protect me?" Tazuna asked incredulously. "They don't look very strong, especially not the stupid looking short one." Naruto scowled. Tayuya had never let him forget that he was the shortest member of the team, so he knew immediately who Tazuna was talking about.

"I will be here as well." Kakashi said calmly.

"And who are you?" The bridgemaker demanded.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I'm their jonin sensei." Tazuna paused, then nodded.

"You'll do fine. Just keep the short one away from me." Kakashi nodded, while Naruto and Tayuya both growled. This was the person they were supposed to be guarding? This annoying, jerkass old man? They both sighed in unison. This was going to suck.

_At the same time_

"I thought you might want to see these." Koshioro said, handing two files over to Zabuza. The swordsman reluctantly took them.

"And what exactly are these?" He asked.

"The files on the two genin you'll be teaching in addition to Haku." Koshioro said with a smile. Zabuza frowned.

"Why do I need their files? I'm meeting them tomorrow aren't I? I'll just test them then." He demanded.

"That might work with the boy, Tamaki, but you'll be in for an awful surprise if you take that approach to the girl, Cana."

"Why, what's her deal?" Zabuza asked lazily, setting the files on his new desk and flipping through Tamaki's file.

"She's a jinchuuriki." Koshioro said dryly. Zabuza's eyes bulged.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Koshioro said with a smile.

"How the hell is she a jinchuuriki? All of them belong to a village already!" Zabuza growled.

"Cana-chan's parents and grandparents were experts at seals. They wished to give the clan an edge, as well as to create a bodyguard for their many travels around the continent. So, when Cana-chan was born, her parents and grandparents sealed within her Isobu, the three tailed turtle. They trained her from birth on how to access Isobu's power, allowing her to learn skills far above the normal for someone of her age range. In other words, I'd be careful around her."

"Is she crazy?" Zabuza asked warily. He'd never met a jinchuuriki before, but the standard opinion from all the reports he'd read and rumors he'd heard was that they were all insane.

"She's as sane as I am." Koshioro said defensively.

"So she's batshit insane then." Zabuza said with a smirk.

"Aren't most shinobi?" Koshioro asked with a shrug.

"Fair enough. And the boy?"

"Tamaki? His parents had a somewhat unhealthy love of the sand country. So, they taught their son one of the more versatile skills unique to that region. Puppetry." Zabuza sighed. He'd fought puppet masters before, and he hated it. Fighting against clones was hard enough, but unlike clones, puppets didn't disappear when you landed one good hit on them. And even if you did destroy a puppet, chances were that the head and half of the other body parts would just sprout blades and come at you anyway.

"How many puppets does he have?"

"Two. One fights with blades, and the other's an archer." Zabuza sighed again. An archer and a puppetmaster. This was just getting better and better.

Author's Notes

Sorry! I'm so sorry this took so long, life is crazy sometimes! Please forgive me!

In the previous chapter's notes, I stated that the 'archer' would be named Tenzou. The problem is that the name seemed a little familiar to me, so I googled it. Apparently, it's the name of a character that already exists in Naruto…yeah, I'm not caught up with the series, sorry about that. So, I'm just going to pretend that I always planned on calling him Tamaki!

I can promise that I'll update faster eventually, but there is going to be an issue. You see, I'm going to be spending the rest of December and a little bit of January off where I won't have any internet access whatsoever. As a result, I won't be able to update at all during that period. I'm telling you this so that you don't think this fic is dead. It's not, and I promise I'll have quite the backlog of chapters ready for you when I get back.

Thanks for reading guys! See you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto

Chapter Four

Tayuya glanced down at the ground and noticed a large puddle on the side of the road. She frowned and discreetly glanced upward. The sky was pure blue without a trace of a cloud, just as it had been for the past few weeks. She reached into her side pouch and pulled out her flute. "Anybody mind if I play my flute while we walk?" She asked. Kakashi and Tazuna shook their heads, and Sasuke didn't say anything, but Naruto gave her a strange look, confused by why she'd bothered to ask for permission. Tayuya quickly began playing before he could say anything though, and his and Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. The three of them had gotten together to train a few times, largely because Sasuke had been impressed by Tayuya's skill in the test, and Kakashi barely trained them at all himself. During the training sessions, it had been decided that while they were traveling for a mission, Tayuya would use her cats to scout the area. They'd also worked out a simple code based on distinctive melodies that Tayuya would play based on the information, so as to keep how much they knew a secret. Even Naruto had gotten the meanings of the tunes down, though it had taken him a long time.

In this case, the tune meant 'keep an eye out and stay on guard." Tayuya wasn't entirely sure what the puddle meant, but it had her worried. Anko and Koshioro had taught her that there was a whole range of jutsus that could be utilized purely with water, and a suspicious puddle like that could easily be related to one such jutsu.

Her suspicions were confirmed a few seconds later when two large claws attached to chains shot out and impaled Kakashi. She and the other three travelers stopped and stared in horror as Kakashi's eye widened, and the chains ripped him apart. "One down!" The one of the two rogue shinobi called out.

"Naruto, guard!" Tayuya yelled, drawing her sword and charging. Naruto blinked, coming out of his stupor, and then nodded and created five clones to help guard Tazuna as Sasuke charged after Tayuya. The shinobi lashed out with their clawed chain, but Tayuya blocked them, twisting the chain around her sword, then stabbing it into the ground, Sasuke rushed past her and jumped between the two men, kicking them both in the head. The two rogue shinobi dropped the claw and pulled out blades, slashing at Sasuke and Tayuya, only for Kakashi to appear between them, easily dispatching both of them with a single blow.

"Nice job." Kakashi told his students, nodding. "Good use of the clones Naruto, and good teamwork from you two." Tayuya nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment as she carefully retrieved her sword, while Sasuke merely grunted. Naruto blushed in embarrassment and dispelled his clones as Kakashi quickly tied the two rogue shinobi up.

"Why'd you let them think you were dead?" Tazuna demanded, looking pale and scared.

"I needed to see what they'd do. Were they rogue shinobi who merely wanted to kill other shinobi, or were they after you? We were hired to protect you from bandits, not ninja. The presence of these two alone raises this up to a B rank mission. After all, this was supposed to be a simple escort mission. If we had known that ninjas were after you, this would have become a much more expensive B, or even an A rank mission. I'm sure you had your reasons, but it causes problems for us when you lie about the mission. We are now operating out of our duties, and in the case of my genin, their skill range."

"Bullshit." Tayuya growled. Kakashi turned to face her, his one visible eyebrow raised.

"Excuse me?"

"I said bullshit. We just took down two rogue chunin without a single injury. Yeah, you helped us, but that doesn't mean we're doomed. At the very least we've proven that we can hold our own." Kakashi stared at her for a moment, then turned to look at Naruto and Sasuke.

"And what do you two think?"

"Totally! I'm not scared!" Naruto said eagerly. "The next guys won't even touch us!" Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's enthusiasm, but he nodded.

"Tayuya's right. The two of us can handle ourselves, and the Dead Last can spam his clones to guard Tazuna." Kakashi considered them for a moment and then, surprisingly, he nodded, even seeming to smile a little.

"Very well. We've travelled this far, we may as well continue. However…" He turned back to face Tazuna. "I'm afraid that I'm going to require complete honesty on your part. I need you to tell me exactly what's going on." Tazuna sighed.

"I suppose you do deserve to know the truth. There is an incredibly dangerous man after my life, someone who will do anything to kill me." Kakashi didn't even blink.

"Who?"

"You've probably at least heard his name before. He is the wealthy shipping magnate Gatou."

"Gatou? Head of the Gatou Shipping Company?" Kakashi asked, genuinely surprised by this particular turn of events. Tazuna sighed again.

"Yes. Officially, he merely runs a very large shipping company. But secretly, he uses his power and wealth to sell drugs and other illegal items, using rogue ninjas and regular bandits to take over rival businesses and even whole countries. A year ago, Gatou set his eyes on the Wave Country, and has taken over all shipping to the land. He now has a complete monopoly, and the only thing left for him to fear is the completion of the bridge."

"So, you knew that Gatou might hire ninjas to kill you? Then why weren't you honest about the situation? After all, that would have gotten you a team far more experienced and far more powerful." Kakashi asked, sounding puzzled.

"The Wave Country is very poor." Tazuna admitted. "Even our Lord doesn't have much money. We don't have nearly enough money to pay for an expensive B rank mission." Kakashi sighed.

"Well, all three of my cute little students" All three of the genin in question bristled at this comment, which made Kakashi chuckle slightly before continuing. "Have decided to go on. So, we'll at least protect you as far as your village." Tazuna nodded his thanks, and they continued on.

_Two days later_

Tayuya scowled as Naruto threw yet another shuriken into a bush, determined to prove his bravery. After the fight, he'd decided that being regulated to guard was stupid and that he'd be in the front line of the fight next time, no matter how many times Kakashi and Tayuya tried to hammer into him that, in this situation, guarding Tazuna was the best use of his clones. It had gotten so annoying that Tayuya had decided that she'd just tree hop, since it'd keep her out of the crossfire, as well as giving her a better vantage point. She'd gotten permission from Kakashi (she figured that she'd pushed him enough recently. She was rude, but she wasn't stupid enough to purposefully piss off the person responsible for her continued progress as a shinobi) and then walked up the trunk of the nearest tree.

To her surprise, both Sasuke and Naruto had reacted with shock to this. Naruto had yelled in amazement, and Sasuke's eye had actually gotten wide. Tayuya, for her part, was just as surprised as they were, though for different reasons. She wasn't too surprised that nobody had bothered to teach Naruto this skill, but she was truly amazed that nobody had bothered to teach Sasuke, the precious last Uchiha, such a basic and valuable skill. So, every night when they'd stopped to camp, she'd begun teaching the two of them while Kakashi watched and occasionally gave the two boys some suggestions.

Suddenly, something white passed underneath her, and she looked down. "Oi, Naruto, stop scaring the rabbits!" She called out.

"What?" Naruto, asked, frowning. Tayuya pointed down at the bush below her.

"There are rabbits down there. If you don't stop throwing those shuriken around, you'll scare them into running away and making even more noise." Kakashi frowned up at her.

"How can you see them? Rabbits are normally pretty camouflaged."

"They're white." Tayuya said simply. Kakashi looked up at her for a moment.

"You'd better come down from there." He said. Tayuya frowned down at him, then jumped down.

They continued along for a while, only for Kakashi to call them to a halt a few minutes later in a large clearing. "I think that's far enough." He said, pulling out a kunai. "Guard Tazuna." He said quietly, and then threw the kunai into the trees. There was a thud, and a man fell out of one of the trees, Kakashi's kunai embedded in his forehead. Instantly, twenty or so rogue shinobi appeared from out of the forest, with three more appearing on the surface of the nearby water. Naruto scowled and summoned five clones.

"Guard the old dude!" He ordered, rushing after Kakashi into the fray. Tayuya and Sasuke looked at each other, sighed, and went after him, Tayuya breaking left and heading for the water. Kakashi frowned as Sasuke jumped in front of him, taking down a man with one kick to the head.

"Didn't I tell you to stay put?" He demanded, throwing a kunai into another shinobi's head.

"The idiot made some clones and then charged in." Sasuke grunted, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at where Naruto and ten more clones were attacking a group of rogue shinobi. "We weren't going to just leave him to his fate, so we joined in." Kakashi glanced over his shoulder, making sure that the clones were still guarding Tazuna, and then sighed. He was really going to have to drill the idea of obedience into his genin's heads.

"Where's Tayuya?" Sasuke pointed at the water, and Kakashi sweatdropped. Anko had really gone all out in training her if she already knew how to walk on water.

Tayuya scowled and sliced through one of her opponents, only for him to dissipate. Koshioro had warned her when he taught her to walk on water that fighting was a lot harder, since it required even more chakra control to fight and keep the flow of chakra balanced, but it she hadn't understood just how hard it would be. And to make matters worse, the asshole she was fighting kept summoning water clones to fight her. Just as the three on shore were finishing up the last of the attackers, a clone appeared right behind her and pressed an all too real kunai against her throat, then knocked the sword out of her hands. "Hatake Kakashi!" The clone summoner called out. Kakashi and the others all turned, just in time to see the clone force Tayuya to her knees. "I'm just here for the old man!" The man continued. "Let me have him, and I'll leave. I'll even let your little student here live. Unless you'd rather I killed her to teach your other two students to take things more seriously of course." He said with a grin. Kakashi's mind raced. There was no way he'd hand over Tazuna, and even if he did, he doubted the man would really let Tayuya live. He had to come up with a plan, and quickly. Fortunately for him, and for her, Tayuya already had one.

"Now." Tayuya growled. The man turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

"What's that?" He asked. "You want me to kill you know and get it over with?"

"I wasn't talking to you, shithead." Tayuya growled. The man glared at her and opened his mouth, but just then, a massive black tiger burst from beneath the surface, tackling him and then decapitating him with one swipe of its claws. Tayuya stood up, the clone having dissipated when the creator died, and took her sword from the tiger's mouth.

"Whoa, who's that?" Naruto yelled excitedly, pointing at the black tiger as it and Tayuya returned to shore.

"This is Hisui." Tayuya said, petting the tiger on the head.

"I didn't see you summon her during the fight." Kakashi said with a frown.

"She didn't." Hisui said flatly, sitting down and staring at Kakashi. "A summon can appear anywhere, regardless of whether or not a summoner calls them. The contract merely means that a summoner can call upon summons at any time to help them; it isn't the only way we can appear in your world. I've been following you for quite some time now."

"Why?" Sasuke demanded. Hisui shrugged.

"Boredom mostly. Tayuya actually does things, unlike most cats, so following her around is much more interesting than staying home." The tiger turned her head to look at Tayuya. "However, I'm afraid that my absence has finally been noticed, and I must return home. Don't worry; I'm sure I'll be able to return just in time to save your scrawny ass." Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you will. Now get out of here, your breath stinks." Hisui rolled her eyes right back, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

_Author's Notes_

Sorry this took so long, sometimes college is excessively hectic.

I'm sorry if I was wrong about the nature of summons, and they really can only appear in the world of humans if they're summoned. That really doesn't make any sense to me, and I haven't seen anything in the series that would make me think that that's the case, but then again, I'm not a hundred percent caught up. If I am wrong, please tell me so that I can fix this.


	5. Author's Note & Apology

Author's Note

Hi guys! I'm just going to say, right now, that I'm so sorry. You see, I'm putting A Little Hellfire on indefinite hiatus. Unfortunately this was going to happen no matter what, I just didn't know it would be so soon. You see, I am a Mormon, and later this year I will be leaving to go on a 2 year mission for my church. Moreover, I would have lost my internet connection from May onwards. I'd hoped to reach the Chunin Exams, or maybe even the timeskip, before that, but another snag has made that impossible.

You see, I have lost my passion for this story, at least for now. I have been trying to write one chapter, for almost a month now. That is far longer than it should take. I'd sit down, maybe get through a paragraph or two, and then lose interest and move on, typically after some extreme writer's block. I think the main problem is that I've finally caught up with the manga, and Kishimoto has made me really wish I hadn't. Remember Chapter 619? The one where we discovered that the true power of the Uchiha is Love? Yeah, that is the worst plot twist I've ever seen. I'd even go so far as to call it series breakingly bad. I have lost any interest in Naruto now. I won't go into detail, since this isn't the place for a rant, but after the fifth time I killed off Sasuke during the battle on the bridge, I decided to call it quits, especially after I realized that the drummers of Spinal Tap had more dignified deaths.

Hopefully, by the time I get back I'll have been able to move on. Until then, I am so, so sorry, please forgive me.

Sincerely,

Fooldartz


End file.
